The Protector

A pen dropped. This pulled me from my staring point sharply and back into the dull, grey room I was sitting in. Dull was an understatement: just a bit of colour would lighten it up. Red would be perfect; a favourite colour of mine. I never saw red the way my wife does but it’s a colour that’s grown on me. Our suits match the dull. Black, white and grey; the accountant colour scheme,
I looked around the room at my associates; they couldn’t possibly enjoy this job. But then again; I could hardly talk. I wasn’t doing anything about it.
Inwardly sighing, I turned my attention back to my boss. While the others scribbled nonsense notes; I watched him staring at the secretary through the meeting room windows. She bent over the desk looking for a lost file; he adjusted himself through his trousers and licked his lips just slightly. A disgustingly dull and perverted old man; this should have registered some sort of emotion in me but I felt nothing. We can all be monsters; it’s just a matter of whether we show them and act on our urges. As far as I knew, he hadn’t yet.

Finally, I reached the security and comfort of my own car. Time to get home; the best part of the day in my opinion. As soon as I walked through the front door, I smelt home-cooking. Perfection. Just like her; she ran towards me and hugged me as she had done every day since we’d been together. I breathed her in and kissed her cheek; my beautiful wife.
‘How was your day?’ She smiled at me as I pulled off my coat.
‘Oh, you know. Same old. What you been cooking? Smells fantastic!’
‘You’ll have to wait and see.’ She winked at me and headed back into the kitchen. I’d just put down my briefcase and loosened my tie when the phone rang.
‘Oh for goodness sake,’ I heard my wife mutter. She picked it up before I’d gotten chance to. ‘Yes, I know. You rang me 5 times earlier.’ Her voice rose as I moved into the kitchen and leant against the door. ‘I know what you’re selling and as I told you 5 times before I don’t want or need it. God you people are so ridiculously rude! Don’t call here again!’ She slammed the phone down; ‘If he rings again, you deal with it.’
‘Oh I will.’ I thought to myself. ‘Who was that?’ I said aloud.
‘Johnny from Interaction Media; at least I think that was his name after hearing it 5 times!’ She said sarcastically.
I forced a smile onto my face and ignored the shaking rage that had entered my body suddenly. I pulled her into my arms and it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. But my head was still thinking; I’d given myself a job for tomorrow.

We were given two hours for our lunch break. God knows why, maybe to de-zombify after staring at numbers and paperwork all day. Today this didn’t bother me though, I had done my much needed research in the morning and that had led me here. The Interaction Media HQ, it hadn’t taken me long to find the only Johnny that worked there, Johnny Ormand.
I was watching him this second, like a lion ready to pounce. Protecting my own. I followed him into a café and waited there patiently. As soon as he got up to go to the toilets, I was close behind. It all happened so quickly but before I knew it; he was unconsciously bundled into the boot of my car and I drove him to the site I had prepared.

‘What do you want from me?!’ His voice erupted through the silence in the room. I stood up and looked down on him. His eyes searched my face, looking for something. I gave him nothing.
‘That’s funny you should ask that Johnny. It seems the roles have reversed haven’t they?’ I smirked at him.
‘What?! What are you talking about? I don’t know you.’ I cut him off with my hand. ‘No, you don’t but that’s your profession. Annoying people you don’t know. Well I have a proposal for you..’ He cut me off this time, ‘What is it? Please, I have money. I can pay you. I won’t say a word.’ I clamped my hand over his mouth and leant in close to his ear.
‘I want to sell to you, the idea of your death. Goodbye Ormand.’
I slammed the knife down hard into his chest and felt the relief surge through me of getting a much needed job done. Back to work.
I hadn’t always been this way, but when I met her; I had changed. My urges were based upon her happiness; when I found that I felt something from doing it, it became a sort-of-habit. A fun version of capture the flag for me; as long as she was happy, that was all that mattered.
I got home that night and as we went to sleep, I held her in my arms again and felt content. ‘I love you so much,’ I whispered in her ear.

A week went by and my wife commented on how she hadn’t received any more of those ‘annoying’ phone calls. I smiled to myself, congratulating myself on being such a devoted and doting husband.

As I worked my way through the countless numbers one day at work; I heard a familiar voice. I looked up and saw my wife gliding effortlessly through the cubicles towards me; bringing warmth and colour into the office along with ‘hellos’ and smiles.
‘Hello darling, you forgot your lunch.’ She said sitting on my lap and kissing me, ‘Thought I’d bring it over for you in case you got hungry.’
‘Thank you very much.’ I said smiling at her but behind her I watched my boss creep up.
‘Hello there, haven’t seen you for a while dear. How are you?’
As they talked, I watched my boss carefully. There came the tale-tell signs; the adjustment and slight lick of the lips.
This time, I felt it. A red hot wave of surging anger flew through me; I struggled to contain it. I said goodbye to my wife to get her out of the office as soon as possible. We both watched her go; I turned to remind my boss that I needed to be getting on and I saw it.
His monster. Over my wife. That was it. Time for mine to come out and play. As I was thinking this, he suddenly turned and looked at me; ‘good work, keep at it.’ I wasn’t sure what he was actually referring to and the thought of that didn’t help calm the beast inside of me.
I knew I needed to play my cards carefully; I wasn’t a fool, an internal investigation would be conducted so I had to be quick, clean and precise about this one.

I waited until my boss entered the toilets. I slipped on my gloves and slowly eased open the door. As I went to reach out and grab him; a fellow associate of mine walked in.
‘Hey guys. God those numbers are boring!’ I moved quicker than I ever had done in my life. I turned my grab towards the sinks and slipped off my gloves without either of them noticing. I faked a few smiles and tried to not let the anger and annoyance I felt get the better of me.
Failed. I went home later that day; preparing for my next available moment I would have.

My wife stroked my hair as my head rested on her stomach. I turned to look at her.
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Oh don’t worry darling. We set him up perfectly today. You’ll get him next time. You always get them.’
We grinned at each other.